Letters: Why the Humanities Still Matter

Re "The Decline and Fall of the English Major" (Sunday Observer, editorial page, June 23):

Verlyn Klinkenborg is right about the value of the humanities, and in particular about English as part of undergraduate education.

Teachers and professors should be rewarded, not penalized, for fostering students' imaginations, for requiring them to read the best poetry and fiction of Western (and other) cultures and for helping students develop the lifelong skill of clear writing based on their own thinking.

The problems facing our country have less to do with the technical competence of our work force than with the failure of our leaders and many citizens to understand the values, institutions and reciprocal commitments that bind a society together and link the future of our democracy to the dreams, welfare and rights of people throughout the world.

The study of history, philosophy, literature and foreign languages is essential for that understanding.

STEPHEN L. KASS
White Plains, June 24, 2013

To the Editor:

I read with interest Verlyn Klinkenborg's essay about the declining interest in studying the humanities and its deleterious effect on people's ability to write.

I teach writing to executives, some quite senior, in a range of organizations. The people I teach are smart, knowledgeable and hard-working. What many lack is what Mr. Klinkenborg describes as "the ability to distribute their thinking in the kinds of sentences that have a merit."

I think of it as a translation problem. Those who can translate their knowledge and understanding into meaningful sentences have a decided personal advantage.

BETTY SUGARMAN
Bronx, June 23, 2013

To the Editor:

Verlyn Klinkenborg points to the drop in the number of English majors as evidence that the humanities are in decline. But we should not measure the health of the humanities by the number of majors we mint. I teach college humanities courses to students who mostly do not go on to be majors. Nor do I measure my success by the number who do.

Instead, I tell them that the humanities can and should be an organic part of all fields of study. Whether they major in business, engineering, biology or even English, the values the humanities promote — clear expression, deep engagement with difficult texts, the importance of function and aesthetics, the power of imagination — are valuable everywhere.

Simply put, we don't need a few more students to be English majors. We need every student to think more like a humanist.

JOSHUA PEDERSON
Boston, June 23, 2013

The writer is a lecturer in humanities at Boston University.

To the Editor:

Verlyn Klinkenborg is correct that the number of college majors in the humanities is declining, and I share his sense that the world would be a better place if it were otherwise.

But I cannot leave unchallenged his implication that literary study has turned into a dull, pallid discipline. We may have to work harder to convince others of our value under conditions that seem unpropitious, and we will.

I invite students and prospective students to check us out: the reports of our death are exaggerated. We endure and prosper as a vibrant, innovative and passionate community that feels devoutly honored to come together in the critical enterprise of reading and writing.

RANDY MALAMUD
Atlanta, June 23, 2013

The writer is chairman of the English department at Georgia State University.

To the Editor:

I, too, mourn the shift away from studying the humanities, especially my major, English literature. How else can students develop the most important skills needed to succeed in business and life? I am referring to critical thinking skills.

In my marketing career, nine of 10 people I hired were English or humanities majors. I intentionally and happily hired those who could think and write over those who could explain statistics or business theory. Analyzing "Macbeth" or laughing at "She Stoops to Conquer" beats the basics of accounting any day.

MARKE RUBENSTEIN
Stamford, Conn., June 23, 2013

To the Editor:

Sixty-five years ago, in my first year of college, I attended a briefing by various faculty representatives to help freshmen decide which subject to major in.

The professor from Harvard's English department gave us some surprising but firm advice: If you think that you'd like to be a writer one day, he said, don't waste your education years studying writing. Instead, learn some of the fascinating things in our great wide world that you may want to write about.

The message resonated. I liked to write and did it fairly well. Yet unlike my roommate, who chose English lit as her major, I wasn't tempted to specialize in any subject other than my passion, history.

Even so, as it turned out, I've spent nearly all my working life as a (nonfiction) writer.

SUSAN M. SEIDMAN
East Hampton, N.Y., June 24, 2013

To the Editor:

I have been a writer and a teacher for nearly three decades. Every year I have seen the disdain for literacy grow, and lament the damage done to our language and culture.

Higher education has largely become an exercise in vocational training, leaving degree holders less than fully literate. Even so, the same general lack of reading and writing skills has given me a career and steady work. Businesses of all types have hired and continue to hire me expressly for my abilities to think and write clearly.

As much as any humanist or poet, I want to see the humanities return as the foundation of education and the definition of what it means to be educated. But I would need to find another occupation if it happened.

PAUL H. HEBNER
Woodside, Queens, June 25, 2013

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